Andrews And Belafonte Set “Showtime” Pace

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32306, 26 May 1970, Page 3

Andrews And Belafonte Set “Showtime” Pace

If the rest of the “Showtime” entertainments on Sunday evening maintain the standard established by Julie Andrews and Harry Belafonte last Sunday night, “Showtime” will be one of the week’s most popular features. I Advance publicity suggestting that “An Evening With Julie Andrews and Harry Belafonte” would have these very popular entertainers attempting things they had not done before was vindicated by this refreshing and easy-going programme. The two singers were delightfully casual: but it was. for all that, quite a lavishly-mounted production. We may be quite out of tune with the times, but we have become very weary indeed, when watching the variety shows of the Andy Williams and Dean Martin varieties, to have to listen to young women with piercing voices and expressions of extreme agony. Julie Andrews has a lovely, lilting voice, she looks charming, fresh, and natural.

There was a lot of singing from them both, covering a tremendous range of music, and they combined as happily and easily in their little bits of nonsense which strung the show together as they did in their singing. “Show Time" looks like being a winner: and it was clear Andrews and Belafonte did not lead the way merely

because they begin the alphabet. Sunday night's fare was uniformly good. After “Show Time" there was another half-hour of madness with Beachcomber, and it seemed fresher and funnier than it has sines the first of this j series. Dr Findlay's casebook is explored by a huge viewing; audience, and the standard is| uniformly good. And to finish the evening, Moira Lister was! splendid as the ageing, I neurotic wife in another "Touch of Venus” solo performance. —PANDORA.

“Mr Roses”

Early afternoon viewers tomorrow will be able to see a 45-minute documentary on Harry Wheatcroft, the renowned rose grower. “Bigger and better roses; more scent; moveable greenhouses; yield per acre; output per hour; computerised ordering system; cold storage; streamlined packaging"—this is the language of the present-day commercial rose grower, and also of David and Christopher Wheatcroft, sons of the most famous of rose growers, Harry Wheatcroft. The name Harry Wheatcroft by itself, though, sums up quite a different image. An artist as well as a businessman, a professional reared on a lifetime of practical experience, and a man whose first love is his work, and second, exploiting it. Alex Valentine, by showing some of the processes involved in David's and Christopher's lucrative business, illustrates the changing world of the rose grower in which Harry finds himself. ON CAMERA The first of a series of demonstrations of the art of the upholsterer is included in the “On Camera" programme this afternoon. The demonstration is given by Bill Brooker. Also on the programme is a visit to Toni Williams during a rehearsal for a cabaret performance. There is a fashion section on the latest lingerie and nightwear from America, and bridal fashions of the future. An interview with Raymond Burr is included in the “On Camera” programme on Thursday.